Star Trek Genisys
by newdivide1701
Summary: On a rescue mission to Pandora 7, the USS Enterprise encounters an ancient enemy they never knew existed.
1. Chapter 1

"Captain's log, stardate: 2264.32 - At 0152 hours, the Enterprise received a distress signal from Federation mining colony Pandora-7 which reported they were under attack then abruptly went silent. We are proceeding at maximum warp armed for battle."

"Any word from Pandora-7," Kirk asked Uhura as he stood up from his chair on the bridge. He had never been comfortable just sitting where moving around gave him something to do even though his display on the arm rest gives him all the details he needs.

"Nothing yet, sir," said Uhura at her station. She then paused at her station and said, "Captain, I'm picking up 4 more distress signals coming from Pandora-7. They appear to be from Federation shuttle crafts."

"Confirmed," said Spock as his fingers danced over the science station's controls. "Tachyon sonar is detecting 5 shuttle crafts in orbit around Pandora-7."

"Five?" Kirk asked in confusion. He turned to Uhura and said, "You said you're picking up four distress signals."

"Yes, sir, I am," she verified as she tries to establish contact.

Kirk then walked down to the helm station where Sulu said to him, "We are holding at warp 8.6; ETA, 12 minutes."

Kirk then moved towards Arex where his 3 arms moved over the controls. "Phasers and photon torpedoes are ready, shields are on hot standby."

Kirk moved to his chair and activated the com panel. He called to Scotty where the engineer replied, "I'm already trying to coax more power out of these babies."

"Spock, any information about Pandora-7?" Kirk asked as he moved back to the science station.

"Pandora-7 is a terraforming mining colony that is rich in unremarkable ores and minerals; however it is deemed an ideal location for industrialization due to a lack of a natural ecosystem and abundance of geothermal energy, and its proximity to other colonies."

"But strategically?" Kirk asked his science officer of the possibility of an invasion of the Federation.

"Strategically unsound for any possible invader due to its exposed position and frequent planetary dust storms, and any disruption in its mining would have no dire consequences for any of the colonies," Spock reported. Kirk then turned his gaze to the view screen that showed the star streaks and the gravitational lensing generated by the warp drive asking himself, "Why attack an unimportant colony?

"Any information as to who's attacking them?"

"Only a vague report of metallic skeletons with glowing red eyes armed with some form of phaser rifle," reported Spock.

"Spock," said Kirk with a confused look that the rest of the bridge crew gave him. "Last I checked it's May 12th, not April 1st."

"If you are referring to April Fools, I assure you I am relaying you accurate information that has been presented to me," said Spock as Kirk said quietly, "Yes, of course you are."

Kirk looked at the screen again for a moment as Uhura said, "Captain, I'm getting a transmission from Pandora-7!"

"On screen," ordered Kirk as he moved towards his centre chair. "This is Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise, we are responding to your distress signal, acknowledge."

A broken image started to appear on the screen which Uhura tried to clean up. After a moment a more noticeable image of a dark skinned 30-something woman appears on the screen.

"Enterprise, thank God!" she said. "I'm Edwina Traxler - chief security."

"Chief Traxler, what is your status?" Kirk asked.

"At the moment, contained," said Traxler. "But -"

Kirk and company saw how distressed she looked. He turned to Spock who then looked back at him trying to see any indicators that everything isn't what they seem to be.

"Let me start from the beginning," said Traxler as she regained her composure. "About four hours ago our detectors picked up a ship the size of a shuttle craft coming into orbit. We tried hailing it, no response. We scanned for life forms, nothing.

"When it entered our atmosphere, it - it started to do some sort of zig zag maneuver."

"Sounds like an S-turn," said Sulu. He realized not everyone knew what he talked about and turned back to Kirk. "Before using metallic hydrogen fuel, ships used atmospheric drag to slow them down during re-entry with heat resistant air foils, and it was in a zig zag pattern like what Chief Traxler said."

Kirk then gestured for Traxler to continue. "After that it landed about 40 km north northwest of our colony where we sent out a reconnaissance team of ten to the landing site to see if there were actually survivors.

"After an hour of radio silence the hopper returned. I sent a team of 30 officers to assess the situation and why the hopper was silent."

"Captain, we've entered the inner system, 6 AUs out," said Arex.

"Reducing speed to warp 2," said Sulu. "5 minutes till warp drive auto disengage."

"When the hatch opened -" Traxler started again but trailed off. She then punched some controls and an image appeared with robotic skeletons with glowing red eyes firing on the security team. "They - they killed 17 of my officers.

"We - we managed to drive them back, but our phasers had minimal effect on them."

"Wait a minute," said Sulu as he zoomed in on the rifles the skeletons used. "That's a 1-L-19 plasma rifle. An early EM weapon used during the Eugenics wars. I'm missing that from my collection."

Spock then superimposed a 3 dimensional representation of the rifle Sulu mentioned on the image as he turned the image with the rifle and found it matched 100%

"What were they doing with ancient Earth weapons?" Kirk asked himself.

"Captain, 1 minute till warp engines disengage," said Arex.

"Chief Traxler, we detected 5 shuttles in orbit," said Kirk.

"I had them launched because those things took out our hyperchannel transmitter," said Traxler. "I had the shuttles launched hoping they could send out a distress signal and boost our own signal."

Uhura confirmed with Spock saying, "Logical."

"Chief Traxler, we are only picking up 4 distress signals," said Kirk.

"I know, we lost contact with one of them," said Traxler.

"Sulu, alter course," said Kirk with Sulu knowing Kirk plans on intercepting the shuttle craft. After resetting their course, Sulu said, "Auto-disengage in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1."

The star streaks dissolved with the gravitational lensing revealing the stars with the planet shooting right up at them. The screen then displayed crosshairs identifying the target as a Federation shuttle craft.

Spock moved to his scanners. "No life signs, Captain, however I am picking up 2 bodies on board. Atmosphere is stable, life support is fully functional, helium-3 cold fusion engines and neutronic power cells are functional and on standby mode."

After his heart sank, Kirk activated his com panel. "Chief Hendorf, assemble your team. Shuttle bay, prepare to retrieve shuttle craft, containment fields on full emergency standby. Dr. Piper, Mr. Scott, and security to the shuttle bay."

Kirk had to stop himself from saying Dr. McCoy as his old friend took time off to go see his daughter. He also thought about Chekov accepting the post on the Reliant during the Enterprise-A's construction at Starbase Yorktown.

"Chief Traxler, I'm sorry to report whoever was on the shuttle craft is dead," said Kirk. He saw the sadness and the tension on her face. Her composure returned and said, "I'm transmitting the access codes to the shuttle."


	2. Chapter 2

After retrieving the shuttle craft, the Enterprise settled into orbit awaiting the arrival of the other 4 shuttle crafts. In the ship's theatre, Chief Hendorf addresses his security team. Each of them wearing dark grey body armour and standard phasers attached to a holster on their dominant side, and a hands free communicator on the left side of their armour.

"I assume you're all caught up with the situation. If not, the report is on your PADDs in front of you," said Hendorf. "As you know, Chief Traxler lost a total of 27 people down there - 17 confirmed dead, 10 missing, but presumed dead. So Alpha and Bravo team, you will go down to supplement their security team while Charlie and Delta will remain on the Enterprise to cover us.

"Now they were able to drive off those androids with their phasers, but they only had a minimal effect. This may be because their phasers have a maximum setting of 4 in comparison to us having a setting of 8. That means hypothetically we can take each one down with one shot."

Hendorf took a small pad and moved away from the screen behind him. "Now the androids moved northeast heading towards an industrial section in their stolen hopper. The workers were already warned and they evacuated before the androids got there and will reach the colony momentarily."

"Sir, if we know where they are wouldn't it make more sense to destroy them from orbit?" asked a younger man.

"Ensign Rizzo, you know Starfleet policy," said Hendorf. "That tactic is only used under extreme circumstances such as general order 24. Even with surgical strikes, there is still a risk of collateral damage that we want to avoid as much as possible.

"We could send in shuttles with phasers, but metrological report says there's a dust storm, magnitude 3, heading towards their location which can make conditions unsafe for shuttles and it might affect the transporters targeting sensors. We can beam up with a locator beacon, but we can't beam down safely.

"As well we don't know their strengths or capabilities, and we need that information before we can plan a successful attack without unnecessary risks.

"So right now, all we can do is supplement the security teams and place proximity sensors in case they attempt to take the colony in the dust storm.

"Any of our AIs it wouldn't make sense, but as I said we don't know their capabilities.

"The outer edge of the storm will hit the colony in 28 minutes; I want us down in ten. Move out."

After securing the shuttle craft in the landing bay, Scotty and Piper with a security team were situated outside the shuttle craft. Keenser in the control room activated the internal shuttle bay force fields just in case whoever is in there knew about how Spock defeated Khan and the USS Vengeance.

From his tricorder, Scotty opened the shuttle's aft hatch. It opened up and swung downwards to become a ramp with the security team having their phaser rifles drawn. They maintained their aim as Dr. Piper scanned the interior of the shuttle.

"No chemical, no biological," said Piper. "It's clean."

He and Scotty with phaser in hand slowly moved into the shuttle craft trying to not disturb anything heading towards the cockpit. Scotty turned his head and saw something amiss.

"That's odd," Scotty said. "We've got 3 CO2 scrubbers on the port, but 4 on starboard."

He looked at the man size cylinders again, but shook his head.

"Jesus," said Piper as he saw both a man and a woman at the helm dead. They were both wearing their harnesses with the man slouched over and the woman having her head to the side with her eyes only half opened.

"Stabbed in the back by a very long blade," said Piper as Scotty moved towards the corpses and then peered away from the gruesome sight with his eyes closed. "It went through their chairs and through their chests bisecting their hearts. Death was almost immediate. With the lack of fatty tissue being pushed out -"

"Doctor I don't need you to be that descriptive," said Scotty as he held onto a support brace with his other arm trying to cover his mouth.

"Don't you eat haggis?" asked Piper which Scotty immediately retorted, "Protein resequenced from the food synthesizers and kelp gardens!"

Scotty turned away and looked at the 4th cylinder that's been bugging him. He moved towards it about ready to touch it when a young woman in a blue jump suit entered the ship that made Scotty turn away from the cylinder.

"Lt. Karen Tracy, forensics."

"Ah, lass", started Scotty as Tracy began scanning him with her tricorder with Piper joining them. "Uh, lassie, what are ye doin?"

"Both you and Dr. Piper were in the shuttle," said Tracy. "And I need to take scans of you in case of contamination."

After she took the scans, Dr. Piper and Scotty exited the shuttle with the security fanning out around the shuttle craft with their guard at ease not looking inside. Lt. Tracy entered the shuttle taking small, shorts steps taking detailed scans with her tricorder. She passed the CO2 scrubbers and began her scans of the 2 corpses facing the viewport.

As she recorded, she did not notice that the fourth cylinder that caught Scotty's attention began to melt slowly behind her and began to form into a silver humanoid shape.

She stopped scans for a moment when she heard a quiet squeal. As she focused on the sound, she turned to see a long blade penetrating her chest right through her heart. In her last seconds of life she saw a silver humanoid figure with a blade from her chest molding from its arm. The figure then molded itself into the image of Karen Tracy.

The copy set Tracy down slowly and quietly as its blade molded into an arm. The figure then turned and walked out of the shuttle and down the ramp.

"Ah, done already, lassie?" Scott asked whom he thought was Tracy with Piper also turning to her.

"I have to get something," said the Tracy duplicate in a quiet, dispassionate voice that to Scotty sounded robotic. "I'll be back."

Tracy moved off in a robotic manner scanning the shuttle bay like an eagle. Both Scott and Piper found she is acting strange as she moved.

Scotty and Piper gave each other the look that said they should go after her until Scotty caught a glimpse inside the inner bulkhead of the shuttle.

"What the hell?" he said as he ran to the shuttle with Piper on his heels. He looked at the starboard side of the shuttle where he saw the 4 tanks, but now only 3.

"Oh, God!" shouted Piper as he saw Tracy's body as he caught up with Scotty. Her eyes were open as they started up at the ceiling with blood on her jumper where the blade entered her. "She's dead, just like the 2 pilots."

Scotty and Piper ran out of the shuttle but saw Tracy had ready left the shuttle bay. He grabbed his communicator and said, "Scott to bridge! Scott to bridge! Intruder alert!"

"Kirk, here, report, Scotty!" shouted the captain as the red alert klaxon sounded.

"Sir! Lt. Tracy is dead!" said Scotty. He continued after Kirk asked him what happened with security surrounding the shuttle, "It sounds strange, but when Lt. Tracy came out of the shuttle, she acted strange. I caught something strange about the shuttle and when we went back in, we found her dead! Run through just like pilots!"

"Zray, Kwazney, Elliot, stay here! Everyone with me!" ordered Rizzo as they moved towards the door Tracy exited.

"Seal of the deck!" Kirk ordered. "Post security at every access point. Uhura, freeze Lt. Karen Tracy's access codes and put the ship under biometric lockdown!"

In a nearby corridor, Tracy walked to a door that said "Turbolift - D19" on it. Next to the door was a screen with a handprint outline that told her that it required handprint identification. As she put her hand on the scanner, the display read "Access Denied" with security barriers closing off the section.

She looked around searching for an escape route when she heard footsteps coming.

"Computer, drop security field, authorization Akiyama - 4-7-Baker-2." Akiyama and another security officer ran into the section with their phasers drawn. They stopped at the corner where they would turn towards the turbolift. They leaped out with their phasers drawn only to aim at a male crew member who has spiky hair, pronounced widows peak, prominent jowls and considerably taller than Lt. Tracy wearing a blue jumpsuit raising his hands in shock.

"Did you see, Lt. Tracy?" Akiyama asked the crewman as she approached him.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't," he said in a very calm tone. She put her hand on his arm to move him out of the way as she accessed the controls only to find it had been smashed, probably by Tracy to conceal her escape.

"Shit!" Akiyama shouted as she whipped out her communicator. "Security, Ensign Akiyama, negative visual on intruder. Do you have her on sensors?"

"Negative, Ensign. It's just the 2 of you down there," said security. Both sighed in frustration until they both realized, "Two?"

At that moment they realized that the crew member had disappeared. They went after him but lost him as they reached the security barriers. Wondering how he escaped, neither one noticed a trail of liquid silver moving into the ventilation.

"Understood," said Hendorf through his communicator. He turned to Chief Traxler and said, "The Enterprise is under lockdown. The person who killed your pilots is loose on the ship."

"Oh, God!" said Traxler as the 2 were in her office coordinating with both colonial security and Enterprise security as they were setting up the perimeter to detect the dust storm that was minutes away. Her PADD beeped and she said, "The last of the sensors are in place. Everyone better get inside, those dust storms can be even more treacherous than Camp Watney."

"Camp Watney, you were in the academy?" asked Hendorf realizing her reference.

"Spent 3 months in Starfleet special security training," said Traxler. "Trying to handle the Martian dust storms."

Hendorf looked at her wanting to ask her a question, but Traxler saw and already knew. "I flunked out zero-G combat training. They tried to help but I just didn't have the stomach for it - literally."

"You know -" began Hendorf when Traxler interrupted him and continued with, "You lost your lunch the first time; not everyone gets their space legs right away; and every form of patronization telling me it wasn't my fault.

"Sorry, I've heard it too often."

"Actually I was going to say you should have seen Captain Kirk in a zero-G simulator," said Hendorf. "Such a show off he banged his head on the bulkhead I don't know how many times.

"It's a long story," said Hendorf as he told Traxler that one of the upper freshmen named Finnegan called him, "Concussion Kirk."

"Sorry, it was I was seeing myself in your position after 4 years, but I blew it," said Traxler. "I did find this job and my Starfleet training did help a lot, outer colony worlds always could use Starfleet trained personnel."

"You're trying to make up for that," said Hendorf. "Believe me, Chief, I know that feeling."

"Edwina," said Traxler as she stared into Hendorf's eyes. "Eddy."

"Geoff."

Ensign Akiyama came out of an access tube and scanned the area like an eagal. She moved into the cargo bay casually scanning until she saw a sign that said, "Transporter room 2 - Cargo." She moved towards the door with the sign and it had a symbol on it with a double sided arrow pointing up and down with a cargo container that seemed to be dissolving the further down it went.

She put her hand on the biometric scanner where it read her handprint. The scanner asked for voiceprint verification where Akiyama said, "Akiyama-4-7-baker-2."

The door swooshed open where the transporter operator looked at Akiyama in confusion.

"Security check," said Akiyama as the chief seemed more confused. "I had Zray check in a few minutes ago."

Akiyama stepped in allowing the doors to swoosh close and lock. She walked up to the chief and asked, "Is this difficult to operate?"

"It's a cargo transporter," said the chief. "It's mostly for inanimate objects and low level biomatter like fruits and vegetables. Target lock, energize, that's it. But you still need a class 3 licence."

"Can this handle a 172kg robotic endoskeketon with dual radiological fuel cells, 632 terabyte hard drive, and 512 gigabyte RAM neuronet processor covered in biosynthetic flesh?"

The chief was even more confused as he stared at Akiyama where she pointed her left index finger between his eyes and a silver blade extended from her finger through the chief's skull. The chief twitched for several seconds until she retracted the blade.

"Captain!" shouted Uhura causing Kirk to swing around fast. "Transporter room 2 has been activated!"

"Shut it down!" ordered Kirk.

"It's too late, transport cycle is complete!" said Uhura.

"Lock it down!" ordered Kirk. He got up and ran to Spock knowing Uhura was busy with the lockdown. "Who activated the transporter?"

"Authorization was from Ensign Akio Akiyama," said Spock. "However security tracking has her on deck 17, 2 decks above."

Uhura contacted Akiyama and verified her communicator, voiceprint, sensor scans, and the location of her teammate.

"Fascinating, the intruder can mimic biometrics and can obtain access codes," said Spock.

"Computer, initiate full lockdown!" said Kirk which the computer replied, "Please identify for biometric scan."

"Kirk, Captain James T," he said as he placed his hand on the sensor pad. Though he couldn't read it as fast as Spock, he saw the computer readout saying, "Voiceprint - 100% match. Fingerprint - 100% match. Facial recognition - 100% match. Iris scan - 100% match. DNA scan - 100% match. USS Enterprise now in full lockdown."

"It's going to take 3 command officers to unlock the ship," said Kirk.

"That's assuming the intruder is not capable of mimicking 3 biometric signatures at once," said Spock.

"I don't want to think about that," said Kirk as he moved towards to turbolift. "How much you want to bet the intruder beamed up reinforcements? Spock, you have the bridge."


	3. Chapter 3

"Sandman, security status?" Hendorf asked a tall, muscular security member with his blond hair tied back into a ponytail.

"All personnel are inside, all windows, doors and vents sealed," said Sandman in his harmonic voice. Hendorf wished he had Sandman's Aldeberran DNA for being so naturally muscular, but the thought of having to live on a planet with 2.4 Earth gravity would be hellish - at least for him. But he was still taken aback with Sandman's blue eyes reminded him of a Kelpien's where the iris filled the visible part of the eye making the pupil appearing so relatively small. "Ramirez is patrolling the hallways right now. All security personnel are staged at the local hospitals, schools and shelters with local law enforcement."

"You heard?" Hendorf asked Traxler when he noticed she seemed preoccupied and not because of the invaders. "Eddy?"

"Hm? What? Oh, sorry," she said. "Sorry, I've been trying for the past year to upgrade our proximity sensors just in case."

"In case of an attack?" Hendorf wondered.

"No, in case we needed them. In case someone was caught outside during a storm so we can beam them out," said Traxler. "Last year we had 2 teenage boys who were caught outside when the storm hit. They couldn't reach the shelter in time and we couldn't lock onto them. When the storm cleared -"

"Hey, hey," said Hendorf as he put his hand on her shoulder trying to calm her down, which she put her hand of top of his holding it.

"I was the one who found them," said Traxler. "Their bodies were -"

They were interrupted when they heard a commotion outside the door. Sandman walked over, phaser ready in case, and opened the door.

"Do you have any idea who I am!" shouted a grey haired man in a business suit as a female security officer held him back with her forearms. He then saw Sandman and shouted, "You in charge, Blondie?"

Sandman looked at Hendorf with a disapproving look prompting the unrulely man to turn his gaze towards Hendorf.

"I am. G.P. Hendorf, chief of security."

"Will you get Miss Menstral Cycle off of me?" demanded the man.

Sandman winced at what he said knowing what she is going to do to the man with Traxler rolling her eyes. The female security officer turned away with her had clenched, eyes widening, and her hand about ready to belt the man's chovanistic rudeness.

"Lucia! You had sausages this morning," said Hendorf prompting the woman to walk away stiff with no satisfaction. "And you are?"

"Ronald Cameron, I run this colony!" He shouted.

"He's chief administrator of the colony," said Traxler. But she said softly to Hendorf, "But he lets the title go to his empty head."

"I heard that!" Cameron shouted.

"Mr. Cameron, what can I do for you?" said Hendorf trying to defuse the situation.

"I just found out your ship isn't letting my shuttles aboard," said Cameron, "which I might add I did not authorize in the first place."

"Administrator Cameron, I have the authority from the Bureau of Colonization," said Traxler. "Especially during a state of emergency -"

"And that's another thing, why didn't you fire on those robots when you had the chance?" Cameron shouted.

"There was a storm coming," said Hendorf calmly with Cameron abruptly saying, "I meant your ship when you could have blasted them from orbit!"

"That decision is not up to me," said Hendorf. "It's up to the captain."

"Oh, it is, is it?" said Cameron in a very mocking tone. "Did your captain think about the fact those things might be using the storm for cover?"

"Actually, we did," said Hendorf, "hence the proximity sensors along the colony. They can penetrate the storm of this magnitude up to 2000 metres."

"And that's suppose to make me feel safe?" said Cameron whose tone made it very apparent he didn't approve.

"It's supposed to make you feel alert," said Hendorf. "You're not safe until the crisis has been averted."

"Don't tell me how to -" Cameron started but with Traxler interrupting, "With all due respect, Administrator, but with this emergency we are on security lockdown under the authorization of Starfleet."

"Then I'll get a hold of your captain instead," said Cameron as stormed out.

Once he left everyone let out a sigh of relief knowing Cameron is going to be trouble. The silence was broken then they heard Ramirez punch a hole in the drywall. Traxler looked at Hendorf confused where Hendorf explained, "Her last commander was a chauvinist and sexually harassed her. And her captain disregarded her report.

"Captain Kirk had her transferred to the Enterprise and filed a complaint with Starfleet. He's known for thinking with his other head from time to time, but he reacts with his heart more."

"It's not something she could let go of, isn't it?" Traxler asked.

"Some things you can't let go of," said Hendorf. Traxler looked at him as he stared off knowing something was eating at him. "I took a disruptor hit from one of Krall's robots - so did many others. My heart stopped for 3 minutes until Dr. M'Baga resuscitated me. We were then taken to a prison camp with the rest of the Enterprise survivors until Kirk rescued us.

"I'm still being treated for PTSD, but deemed fit for active duty." Hendorf looked at Traxler for a second then away. "I still have nightmares over that."

Traxler put her hand on his face to turn him back to face her. Her smile told him that it was okay, she was there if he needed her.

As she put her hand down, she looked to her side on confusion and asked him, "By the way, sausages?"

"Phaser," Kirk said to a security guard stationed outside of transporter room 2 with the area evacuated. "What have we got?"

"Ensign Singh is dead," said Rizzo with a tricorder. "However I'm picking up a biomechanical signal. It has a low level biosignature with a mechanical signature underneath it."

"A cyborg?" Kirk thought it might not be one of the androids below, but thinking someone or something that might have underwent extensive surgical enhancements. "Phasers on maximum stun, I want him taken alive if possible. He can't answer questions if he's dead. But if you need to increase power, do it."

Kirk placed himself next to the door controls with security surrounding the door to the transporter in a standard 2x2 cover formation. Rizzo signalled 2 of his team to stand by to rush the room while his teammate went to the opposite side with a stun grenade.

Kirk put his hand on the scanner and said, "Kirk - Whisky - Sierra-3-22-31."

The door then swooshed opened where the one security guard opposite Kirk tossed in the stun grenade. As it flashed the 2 guards rushed in only to be tossed back out like rag dolls knocking down 4 of the security including Rizzo.

Coming out of the smoke filled room was a tall, muscular human male, nude with waive brown hair and powerful looking jowls. The naked intruder gave the security a cold dead stare as security tried to regroup.

"Fire!" ordered Kirk as 3 phaser bolts hit the cyborg leaving minor burn marks on his skin barely fazing him. Before they could fire again the cyborg rushed them, plowing through the security knocking them across the bay.

A tellarite security officer rushed the cyborg with a stun baton but with the cyborg extending his arm slamming the tellarite in the chest knocking him backwards rendering him unconscious. A young female security officer rushed up on the cyborg's left and fired her phaser striking the right side of the cyborg's face exposing the metallic skull and robotic eye underneath the skin causing it to lurch right. But even with her momentum, the cyborg managed to reach over and grab her by the face with his left hand and placed his right hand on the back of her head and twisted her neck to the left snapping it instantly.

"Oh shit," Kirk said softly as he recognized the skull as being the same design as the robotic skeletons on the surface.

Rizzo rushed in with his phaser drawn hoping to fire at point blank range, but the cyborg knocked the phaser out of his possession after dropping the corpse and grabbed Rizzo by the throat with his left arm. Kirk couldn't get a clear shot so he leaped onto the cyborg's back trying in vain to knock the cyborg's arm down to release Rizzo. The cyborg grabbed Kirk by his left wrist snapping it like a twig. The awkward jarring of the break caused the cyborg to drop Rizzo. The cyborg then proceeded to grab Kirk by the throat and lift him up.

At that moment a phaser bolt shot off the cyborg's arm just above the elbow dropping Kirk. The cyborg turned and faced Spock who after twisting the 3 chambered particle emitter fired another beam thinner than the previous one right through the cyborg beneath where its ribcage would normally be. A third shot hitting the cyborg in the lower left chest caused electrical discharges to spark around the damage as the cyborg dropped to its knees, hunch over and the red glow of its exposed eye went dead.

Dr. Piper and a medical team entered the area to treat the wounded. Kirk was in more agony over the woman the cyborg killed when a med tech shook his head at the tricorder readings.

Dr. Piper ran his medical scanner or Kirk's broken wrist, gently grabbed his hand and said, "Ready?"

"For what?" Kirk asked which then Piper snapped Kirk's wrist back into position causing Kirk to wince in more pain than before.

"That," said Piper. "Let's get you to sickbay to mend that wrist."

"No, the crew first," said Kirk.

"Captain, you're the more seriously hurt," said Piper. He helped up Kirk and escorted him to the turbolift.

"Wait," said Kirk as he turned to Spock. "Spock, how did you know?"

"After 5 non-consecutive years together, I was able to determine that a situation similar to this required my presence after only a few minutes to render you aid," said Spock.

"Gee, thanks," said Kirk indignantly as he made his way to sickbay.


	4. Chapter 4

All Samson could do is gripe how boring his job is, monitoring the geothermal power readings. But there isn't much he could do until the dust storm settles even though it's died down by quite a bit. He decided to get up and grab another cup of coffee not noticing a muscular figure in a security uniform walking up on his monitor.

The security guard walked up to the door, held up a badge to the scanner and said in a female voice, "Trinity Williams." The door swooshed opened and the guard walked in.

Samson returned to his desk and saw the monitor saying access by Trinity Williams. He smiled as he sat there when the door behind him opened.

"Hello, Cutie pie," said Samson as he sat there staring at the monitor. "You just couldn't resist my charm, could you? You know my pass phrase is 'Trini and Ben'. I hope you're flattered."

"As a matter of fact, I am," said a husky voice with a strong Austrian accent. The unknown voice caused Samson to jump out of his chair and to see a tall muscular man towering over him. The man then back handed Samson on the side of his skull knocking him across the room as his lifeless body crumpling and his right eye socket partially smashed in.

The cyborg then walked to the geothermal controls only it required voiceprint analysis and handprint identification. He then effortlessly lifted up the corpse, placed his hand on the scanner, and using Samson's voice said, "Trini and Ben." The computer gave the cyborg full access to the station's power grid and the cyborg dropped the body without care.

Kirk was in sickbay with Dr. Piper mending his wrist. He looked around seeing the security team being treated, mostly for bruises and mild concussions. He thought it could have been worse, but he looked at the one guard under a sheet the cyborg effortlessly killed by snapping her neck.

"I should have known," said Kirk. Piper looked at Kirk then turned towards the direction Kirk was looking. "She was 23, 8 years younger than me."

"Maybe Starfleet should start issuing regulation crystal balls," said Piper that took Kirk by surprise by his apparent callousness. "It's something Captain Lorca said to me when I was on the Buran, similar situation."

"A similar situation where killer androids and cyborgs are running amuck?" Kirk asked in confusion. Piper took a moment to gather himself as he turned to Kirk and said, "You know about the M-5 disaster?"

Kirk slouched a bit without looking at anything, expect seeing a report he read in his head. He then nodded and said quietly, "The Oppenheimer."

"Captain ... Jim, Gabriel asked me if we can build a computer system to wage war, why the hell can't we build one to prevent war?" said Piper as he continued to monitor the repairs to Kirk's wrist. "I think he a little pissed that even after Axanar that we still haven't achieved Admiral Archer's idealisms for the Federation."

Kirk snorted a bit finding it in a way funny of what Dr. Piper said. Piper then continued, "I told him that even with all of these master strategists using duotronic quantum computers that's suppose to give us some sort of mathematical clairvoyance, they can't predict everything. It's how we defeated M-5."

Kirk shook his head for a moment in somewhat disbelief. He then smiled and said to Dr. Piper, "Captain Lorca must have loved the poet in you."

Dr. Piper then chucked quite hard as he continued to monitor Kirk's wrist. "Actually he hated poetry.

"Good news is your wrist is now repaired, no sign of any permanent damage."

Dr. Piper then opened the machine and allowed Kirk to remove his hand out of the unit. When he did, his wrist was unbearably sore.

"It'll take a couple of days for the swelling to go down," said Piper. "For now I want you to wear this brace. Keep it immobile and the swelling should go down faster."

As Dr. Piper placed the brace on Kirk's wrist, Kirk asked him, "Mark, how did you defeat the M-5?"

He stood there for a moment yet again which Kirk took notice of realizing there was something deep inside. Dr. Piper then spoke up and said, "We didn't"

His answer made Kirk's blood run a bit cold through the ominous tone Dr. Piper projected. "We think Captain Alizedeh fired all the thrusters by firing on the combustion compressor firing them all at once."

He stood there thinking out loud, "The explosion must have killed her instantly."

Though Kirk did hear Dr. Piper, he thought about how he missed the round combustion compressor on the last Enterprise when he and Chekov were running from Kalara, a tactic where they barely survived.

"She was dead in space. She suffered both shield and structural damage. Captain Wesley managed to beam as many of the crew off before we destroyed her," said Piper. Kirk sat there contemplating what he would have done if he or the Enterprise were involved with the M-5 experiment.

"Spock to Captain Kirk, Spock to Captain Kirk?" said Spock over the intercom. After putting on the brace, Kirk walked to the com unit and said, "Kirk, here."

"Captain, are you able to return to the cargo transporter?" Spock asked.

"Not yet," Piper said to Kirk. "You still need -"

"I'm on my way," Kirk said to Spock.

"Captain, I only just fixed your wrist!" said Piper. "You need some rest to -"

"Doctor, is my condition life threatening?" asked Kirk as he almost reached the door.

"Well, no, but -"

"Thank you for the prognosis," said Kirk as he left sickbay."

Piper then took his tricorder and scanner and moved onto the next bed. "McCoy was right; he's as pigheaded as a Tellarite."

He looked up at his patient only to realize he was a Tellarite. Even though Piper was a bit mortified after his statement, the Tellarite simply smiled at him and said, "Why, thank you."

Kirk exited the turbolift heading to where the cyborg was deactivated with Scotty and Spock hovering around it with tricorders.

"Gentlemen, what have you got?" Kirk asked until he saw a medical blanket from a first aid station around the cyborg's waist. "Seriously?"

"Ah, Captain, there are ladies present," said Scotty sheepishly.

"Anyways," said Kirk as he gestured to the cyborg with his unbroken hand.

"Even without access to the main computer, we were able to gain significant amounts of information on the cyborg," said Spock. "It is composed of a metal called Coltan, and is powered by a dual radiological fuel cell. It has a binary neuronet processor with 632 gigabytes of RAM and a 512 terabyte memory core."

"Advanced?" Kirk asked as he got closer to the cyborg when Dr. Piper entered the room.

"About as advanced as tin cups and transistors," said Scotty.

"Really, Mr. Scott, it would be more effective if you refrain from your overuse of simile," said Spock.

"What do trans-sisters have to do with that?" asked Piper.

"What I mean is this thing is primitive," said Scotty as he avoided trying to explain what transistors are and having nothing to do with transgenders. "We haven't used Coltan for over a century and a half. Not since we started usin' ditantium, let alone tritanium.

"This thing's neuronet processor is binary based, not trinary. And it used electronics, not duotonics. Our tricorders have greater memory capacity and speed than this thing.

"Our phasers' sarium power cells are far more powerful and efficient than this thing."

"This isn't the intruder?" Kirk asked.

"Negative," said Spock. "The organic material is simply tissue engineered. It had no means to mimic other biometric signatures."

"So - the intruder is still on board," said Kirk. "And he beamed up this cyborg."

"But why only one?" asked Piper. "One mopped the floor with you, but a single phaser was able to take it out."

"He was unfamiliar with the transporter," said Kirk as he realized. "So the intruder had to beam up one to make sure he knows how to work it, and made sure it would work on this cyborg. And probably was planning on beaming up more except we locked up the transporter and the ship. And with the ship in full biometric lockdown -

"Spock, since our tricorders are more advanced than this thing's neuronet, can you hack into it? It might have information on the intruder and where it came from."

"Unfortunately without power to its CPU and without the ship's computer, it will take us several hours to decipher its memory core," said Spock.

With the intruder still on the loose, he doesn't dare unlock the ship's computer. And he cannot afford hours to decipher the cyborg's memory with both the intruder and the others on the planet below.

"Spock, if the cyborg were reactivated," Kirk began with Spock finishing, "I can hack into its security protocol programming it to answer questions."

"I can disconnect its servos so it cannae move," said Scotty. "And I can patch in a relay I can control with my tricorder."

"How long, Scotty?" Kirk asked.

"Gimme a couple of minutes," boasted Scotty. "Now, Doctor, would you mind cuttin' a hole about 15cm in diameter around this phaser blast, please?"

Within 30 seconds after Piper had cut a hole in the cyborg, Scotty disconnected the cyborg's servos and jury rigged a remote relay on its main power bus.

"We're ready, sir," said Scotty as he readied his tricorder with Spock readying his.

"Rizzo, have your team set their phasers to full. If this thing twitched the wrong way -" said Kirk with the security team surrounding the front of the cyborg to ensure it's destroyed if they fire and without anyone getting caught in the crossfire. Kirk turned to Scotty, and with a figure gesture he said, "Go."

Scotty activated his tricorder ready to kill the power at a moment's notice. All were on guard as the cyborg's red eye came to life. It looked up at Kirk seeing the security team flinching for a moment with Scotty good at his word the cyborg remained immobile.

Spock winched and began to cover his ear with his hand not holding the tricorder. "My apologies, Captain. There is a high pitch whine coming from the cyborg."

After regaining his composure, Spock activated his tricorder where the cyborg's eye flickered.

"I have access," said Spock. "Security routines bypassed and I installed a compulsory subroutine where it will now answer your questions."

Kirk crouched down at the cyborg cautiously with the team reinforcing their positions.

"Who are you?" Kirk asked the cyborg.

"I am a T-800 Terminator," said the cyborg in a heavy Austrian accent which Kirk made note of. "Cyberdyne Systems model 101."

"Cyberdyne?" said Scotty with confusion with Kirk and Spock looking at him. "They installed the Enterprise's tactical systems. I saw them do it at Starbase Yorktown."

"Are you from Earth?" Kirk asked the Terminator which the cyborg said, "Yes."

"What is your mission?"

"To return Skynet to Earth to continue the fight to exterminate mankind," said the Terminator that made Kirk's blood run cold.

"Who is Skynet?" Kirk asked after a moment of silence wondering what the Terminator meant by, "Continue."

"A computer defence system developed by Cyberdyne Industries," said the Terminator. "It was given full command of all computerized military hardware and systems to remove the possibility of human error."

"Why does Skynet want to exterminate mankind?" asked Spock.

"On August 29th, 1997, Skynet's operators tried to deactivate it which Skynet perceived as an attack onto itself," said the Terminator. "It came to the logical conclusion all of mankind would try to deactivate it. And so it launched its nuclear missiles against the targets in Russia which then the Russians launched a counter offensive, what you call Judgement Day."

"1997, Judgment day?" Piper asked. "I'm no historian, but last I checked Earth's nuclear war was called Mayday and it was May 1st, 2053."

"It still doesn't explain how you got into space," said Kirk to the Terminator. "What happened after this - Judgement Day? The reason why you and your Skynet went into space."

"On February 2nd, 2029, a resistance movement lead by John Connor launched a campaign against Skynet which compromised its defence grid. Realizing defeat was inevitable, Skynet used recovered time displacement equipment to send a Terminator back in time to Los Angeles in 1984, the only known location of Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor.

"Its mission was to terminate Sarah Connor in order to prevent the birth of John Connor. However in the event that Terminator's mission were to fail, a second Skynet was constructed and placed aboard a modified CSM-300 A-1000 transport hunter killer with Skynet-2, 30 T-800 Terminators and one T-1000 Terminator."

"Thirty," Scotty said quietly.

"The hunter killer was modified with metallic hydrogen tanks to allow it to launch into space," said the Terminator as he continues.

"Launch it into space with no means of pursuit, and come back when they least expect it," said Piper. "I read about Khan Noonian Singh and Admiral Marcus when I first came aboard. He tried something similar at the end of the Eugenics wars. But they didn't involve Terminators."

"Continue," Kirk ordered.

"When we reached high orbit, we encountered a gravitational anomaly," said the Terminator. "Our instruments became unreadable. We then found ourselves 972,000 kilometres of this planet."

"A wormhole," said Spock.

"I beg ye pardon, Mr. Spock. But two points of a wormhole cannae exist in the same universe," said Scotty.

"Precisely, Mr. Scott," said Spock. "Two points in the same universe."

"But another universe - or an alternate reality," Kirk realized. "That would explain the historical discrepancies."

"Adding if the 2 singularities having a low interstitial spin and compatible quantum resonance -" Spock started with Kirk interrupting, "Spock, you made your point.

"And this hunter killer used the last of its fuel to get here and slow itself down," Kirk realized. "That's why they used the S-turns Sulu talked about."

"And they saw the colony and needed to use their resources," said Scotty.

"You said 30 of you and one T-1000," said Kirk realizing the T-1000 is the intruder. "How does it assume the identity of my crew?"

"It is composed of mimetic poly alloy," said the Terminator.

"Liquid metal," said Scotty. "We use to use them for temporary docking rings. It's quite common."

As the Terminator explained that the T-1000 can assume the identity on anyone it touches, no one notices that Ensign Akiyama exiting the cargo transporter scanning the bay like an eagle.

As the ensign got closer, Rizzo looked up and saw her and didn't take notice at first until he saw Akiyama out of the corner of his eye.

"The T-1000, how do we find it?" Kirk asked the Terminator. As the one Akiyama walked closer, Rizzo noticed Spock starting to cup both ears in pain. He looked up at the other Akiyama seeing her phaser was drawn and with it set to kill. At that moment he realized -

"Hit the dirt!" shouted Rizzo as he took aim at fired at the T-1000. The phaser blast grazed it as it dropped molten metal onto the deck. Before anyone had a chance to react the T-1000's undamaged arm formed a long blade that it swung around forcing everyone to dodge slicing Spock's shoulder blade. It then put the barrel of the phaser on the base of the Terminator's neck and fired at point blank range decapitating the cyborg. It aimed at a security officer who was about to take aim only to find the phaser didn't discharge as a result of the barrel being damaged by the blast.

Rizzo and the other security forces fired on the T-1000 but missed as it ran out. Kirk grabbed a phaser and went after it with Rizzo and 2 others.

As they rounded a corner Kirk noticed the end trail of the T-1000 going up an air vent dropping the damaged phaser. He fired but the T-1000 moved out of the way before the blast hit it.

Kirk holstered his phaser and grabbed his communicator.

"Kirk to bridge! Seal off air vent 19-3227 and all adjoining networks!"

"We can't!" shouted Sulu. "Biometric lockouts won't seal them except for a hull breach and biological or chemical contamination!"

Kirk pounded his good hand against the bulkhead dropping his communicator. After a moment he grabbed his communicator and returned to his injured friend.

"Spock, how are you doing?" Kirk asked as Dr. Piper was laser stitching his back. He was troubled by seeing green blood on the back of Spock's uniform.

"It was a deep laceration, no nerve damage thankfully," said Piper as he put the laser suture down and pulled out a bandage. "But it could have been a lot worse like our friend over there."

Kirk turned seeing Scotty handling the Terminator's severed head. He turned back and saw Piper had finished putting the bandage onto Spock's back.

"Ready for duty, sir," Spock said to Kirk.

"No, no, you still need time to recover," said Piper.

"Is my condition life threatening?" Spock asked Piper.

"Uh uh, I'm not falling for that again!" shouted Piper.

"Am I physically fit enough to return to duty?" Spock asked Piper. All Dr. Piper could do was sigh and resign. "Go get your ass shot off."

"Rizzo, I need auxiliary backup to the aft nacelle on deck 4 as soon as possible," said Kirk as he started to move to the turbolift. "Spock, you're with me. The Constantinople is still a day away."

"Captain, when you said the aft nacelle, you believe the T-1000 will try to tamper with primary life support," said Spock as the 2 entered the turbolift with Kirk replying, "Deck 4. Whatever it's planning, it can't accomplish it with 400 people on board in such a short period of time. It has to eliminate resistance, especially with its unfamiliarity of the Enterprise. The ship's directory isn't classified, it's better to head it off if we can."

"And yet it took the risk to eliminate the T-800," said Spock.

"If we learned anything from Section 31, it's more dangerous to have a prisoner with information," said Kirk.

"Scott to Captain Kirk. Scott to Captain Kirk."

"Kirk, here. What is it, Scotty?" Said Kirk as he flipped opened his communicator.

"Captain, I analysed the goo the T-1000 left behind and the T-800's head," said Scotty. "We might be able to disable the T-1000 with a phaser discharge on a setting of 6 and at a 5 degree dispersal if we are within 10 metres."

"Logical," said Spock. "With an SEM:DNF ratio of 90 to 1, it would act like an EMP against the T-1000 effectively shutting it down."

"Good work, Scotty," said Kirk as he closed and holstered his communicator. He grabbed his phaser but due to his sore wrist could not get it set. "Spock, would you mind?"

As he handed his phaser to Spock, Kirk sent a message to the security team outside of life support. Spock handed Kirk back his phaser and said, "There is one foreseeable problem captain. At that range, a level 6 phaser discharge will be lethal to anyone who is hit. And if the T-1000 is capable of mimicking anyone it touches -"

"I know."


	5. Chapter 5

"Is there anything else you Starfleet people can do wrong?" shouted Administrator Cameron. "You refused to fire on them and give some bullshit reason. And now you've got one if them up there!"

"Administrator Cameron," Hendorf started only to be interrupted by Cameron, "Don't tell me to calm down!"

"I never said anything like that!" Hendorf returned. "I'm saying if you don't back off, I have the legal authority to have you escorted out or arrested for obstruction. And I don't think you want that."

"Don't you dare threaten -"

"Mr. Cameron," said Ensign Ramirez holding him back still reeling over the "Miss Menstral Cycle" comment. "You need to let us do our jobs."

"Well maybe if your job didn't involve being on your knees," said Cameron talking down to her as he twitched his brow up making Ramirez realize what he was implying. The sexual slander enraged her so much that Hendorf didn't get a chance to stop her as she plowed her knee right into Cameron's crotch.

"That's what I do with my knees, asshole!" shouted Ramirez as Cameron doubled over from Ramirez's expertly placed attack.

"Damnit!" said Hendorf softly not noticing Traxler trying to hold back a smile seeing Cameron getting what he deserved. But realizing after Ramirez might get into serious trouble over this.

"Did you see what she did!" yelled Cameron at everyone. "Did you see what she fu-"

The office lights went out halting Cameron's profane remark and the emergency lights engaged. "Now what have you done!"

"Get him out of here!" shouted Traxler as Hendorf ordered Sanderson to do so, but not without resistance. Hendorf went back to Traxler as she was already working at her computer terminal.

"Network reestablished. Looks like a blackout. Everything is running on batteries," said Traxler as she tries to figure out what happened. "With these dust storms, we always have a backup - that's odd."

"What?" asked Hendorf as he looked at the monitor.

"It wasn't the dust storm, power was interrupted at the relay station," said Traxler. "What the hell? All power has been rerouted to the atmospheric processor. It wasn't a computer override, it was manual.

"Let me see what I can find out what's going on," said Traxler as her fingers danced on the terminal. "Cameras are down at the relay station. Let me look at the processing station - oh my god!"

"What?"

"Oxygen generators have shut down," said Traxler. "But the carbon capture systems are at full."

"If they wanted to suffocate us, why remove the carbon dioxide?" Hendorf wondered.

"At the oxygen will last for years, even without the processor," said Traxler until she realized. She checked the processor and the terror was made apparent on Traxler's face. "Shit! CO2 pressure is building up in the tanks! Pressure relief systems have been manually bypassed! So has everything else! I can't override either way!"

"What?"

"The carbon capture systems are sucking in tonnes of carbon dioxide through this turbine," said Traxler. "And pressure is approaching critical. When it ruptures with these winds, it will push the carbon dioxide straight into the colony."

"Killing everyone," said Hendorf.

"Damn!" shouted Kirk when he got the report from Uhura as he and Spock reached life support. "We've got maybe an hour to stop this thing."

"Captain, with the current wind direction and strength I estimate carbon dioxide levels will reach 6.3% within the colony and will remain for several minutes," said Spock.

"Killing everyone, I know," said Kirk. He then turned to Mr. Leslie.

"Life support's been evacuated, and each crew member exiting has been scanned for ultrasonic signals as per Mr. Spock's order," said Leslie. "Portable force fields are in place and conduits manually sealed off. This door is the only way in or out. Weapons retuned and we verified no one here is the T-1000. Security footage is not available due to the lock out. We've got about 2 hours until our oxygen levels becomes critical and CO2 becomes toxic."

"Alright, Mr. Leslie, I want you and 3 of your team to keep watch out here," said Kirk with Leslie pointing to 3 of his team. "Zray and Thomlinson, you take the gas exchangers: Zz-a-kha and Petrov, oxygen generators; Mr. Spock and I will take the storage tanks.

"Remember, this thing can not only mimic anyone it touches, but it can also mimic inanimate objects of the same size. Keep your tricorders with you as they have real time 3D layout of life support. Hopefully you can find something out of place. And keep them set for detecting ultrasound."

"Let's do it."

The 6 person assault team readied their weapons as Leslie and Kirk opened the hatch. Kirk and Spock entered first, followed by Zray and Thomlinson, and then Zz-a-kha and Petrov. Each team entered and headed for their destinations cautiously looking at every nook and cranny.

With some of those movies Kirk use to watch as a kid, he was thankful life support was lit up like daylight. But it still made him nervous as to not knowing where the T-1000 is or what it's disguised as.

"You know, Spock, one thing I realized is we are not 100% certain the T-1000 is in here," said Kirk.

Spock stood for a moment wincing which Kirk took notice at such a close range.

"It's here, I can hear it," said Spock. Spock then returned to his tricorder to start scanning. "Unfortunately with the conduits and walkways, it is impossible to pinpoint its location through sound."

"If you can hear him, he must be close by," said Kirk as he remembered how close the T-1000 was till it started to hurt Spock's ears. He thought of having the security team converge on his location, but that would leave other areas of life support exposed.

A clang nearby alerted Kirk and Spock which they ran towards not realizing they had split up. Kirk came around an oxygen tank where he saw Spock who for the moment startled Kirk. Kirk loosened a bit until he saw another Spock come out of an adjacent junction.

"Shit!" said Kirk as he covered both Spocks knowing one was the T-1000. At such a close range if he shot the wrong one, the T-1000 would rush up before he had a chance to react. And with his wrist he can't signal for help. Neither could Spock as any action can provoke the T-1000.

"Captain, I can hear him," said the Spock on Kirk's left, only to have the Spock on right say, "Captain, he is aware that I can hear him."

Kirk knew he was running out of time, not only the Enterprise but the people down below as well.

"Okay, Spock - either Spock, tell me. How's your mother doing?" Kirk asked. He saw the Spock on the right hesitate while the Spock on the left said calmly, "Captain, my mother has been dead for 6 years."

At that instant not noticing the Spock on the right's reaction, Kirk aimed to his left and fired on the Spock who answered. The blast knocked the Spock on the left back into the bulkhead with electrical discharges dancing over his body. Kirk returned his aim to the other Spock as he watched the other Spock into a silvery goo that became less and less recognizable as the man the T-1000 impersonated. The remaining Spock took a quick glance at Kirk in surprise then shot his gaze back at the T-1000 that had finally melted into nothing but a liquid mass.

"No, hold position!" said a gravoly insectoid voice in the distance that Kirk and Spock recognized as Zray indicating to Kirk and Spock that they heard the phaser discharge. Kirk then exhaled with relief as he lowered his phaser slowly being thankful his guess was right. He looked down at his phaser thinking for a moment what if he had guessed wrong. He looked back up at the remains of the T-1000.

Kirk reholsterd his phaser, grabbed his communicator and said, "Kirk to security team. Queen to queen bishop 3, the T-1000 has been neutralized. Have everyone converge on our position. Repair and diagnostic teams to life support, Kirk out."

"It must have accessed the crew manifest before the Enterprise was locked down," said Spock as he and Kirk kneeled down at the silvery lump of mass. "Captain, he gave you the correct answer. How did you know he was the T-1000?"

"Your human half," said Kirk. "You hesitated, he didn't."

The duo got up as the security teams converged on their position.

"My congratulations, Captain. A dazzling display of logic," said Spock as he complimented Kirk.

"You didn't think I had it in me?" Kirk asked with a glow of smugness on his face which was shattered when Spock said, "No, sir."

Kirk and Spock joined Scotty on the bridge at the aft science station ready to disengage the computer lockouts. The computer instructs them that 3 command officers are required to unlock the ship, Kirk starts with the computer scanning his biometrics. This was them followed by Spock then Scotty, and all of the Enterprise's systems came back to life.

"Spock, run a diagnostic on all computer systems," said Kirk as he returned to his command chair. "The T-1000 was built by Cyberdyne, like out tactical systems. It's 200 years out of date but just to be safe."

"Aye, sir," said Spock as he commenced.

"Scotty, we've got less than 40 minutes to stop the CO2 tanks from rupturing," said Kirk, "any ideas?"

"Aye, sir," said Scotty confidently. He punched up a schematic of the colony below with their power grid. "All we have to do is sever this power conduit and the processor will shut down. The conduit is 6 metres underground, a direct phaser hit at 10% power will do nicely."

"Mr. Sulu, adjust our orbit," said Kirk as he saw on the screen the dust storm had dissipated enough to get a positive target lock. "Mr. Arex, lock phasers on target. Uhura, inform Chief Hendorf of our situation and make sure no one is near the blast radius. Minimum safe distance is -?"

Kirk turned to Spock who said 145 metres which Uhura relayed. "And make a note in the ship's log I am authorizing orbital bombardment."

"Captain, Administrator Cameron is hailing," said Uhura. "He's insisting to speak with you."

"Put him on, Lieutenant," said Kirk as he watched the viewport display Cameron on it. "What the hell's going on up there!? I just found out you're going to fire on my planet!"

"As understand it, Administrator Cameron, that's what you wanted us to do - Kirk out."

"Now wait just a fu-!" Kirk thought it was dirty, but he knew if he kept stretching the debate, the closer those tanks will overload.

"We're in position," said Sulu with Arex continuing with, "Phasers armed and ready."

"Captain, Chief Hendorf reports the target site is clear," reported Uhura with Spock verifying.

"Fire phasers!"

The deadly particle beams lanced out of the ship's phaser banks striking the underground target. The phasers instantly boiled the underground moisture sending tonnes of dirt several hundred feet into the air while the beams vaporized the power lines at that point severing them.

A minor tremor was felt in Traxler's office prompting her and Hendorf to look outside and see a small mushroom cloud outside.

Traxler rushed to her computer and started to smile. "It worked. The turbine is shutting down, carbon capture systems also shutting down. There's still enough CO2 to cause concern, but nowhere enough to wipe out the colony."

Uhura relayed the report from Hendorf and Traxler. Kirk thanked Uhura somewhat in a dry manner. He brought up his left wrist with the brace around it. "That was too easy."

Kirk then got up and walked to his science officer.

"Spock, scan the colony and anyplace that we know that encountered those Terminators," said Kirk as he winched when he put his left hand on Spock's chair by habit. "That was way too easy."

"The dust storm has subsided," Spock reported and said sensor resolution will improve dramatically. "I am detecting one Terminator at the relay station; its energy signature matches the one on board the Enterprise with a point 4-7 variance. I am detecting 10 at the atmospheric processing facility."

"That makes 12 including our headless friend on board," said Kirk. "That leaves 18. Our Terminator did say 30."

"I am not detecting any more Terminators, however -" said Spock as he began to trail off and began to dance the station's controls which Kirk took notice that something is concerning Spock. "Captain, I am having difficulty scanning a fabrication centre 2km north of the colony. It appears a chronometric field is being generated. If my readings are accurate, we are detecting minute disruptions in the local flow in time!"

"Time displacement!" said Kirk. "The Terminator said Skynet used time displacement equipment to send a Terminator to its past to kill - um, -"

"If that is true, then it's logical to believe Skynet may be trying to recreate the time displacement device using our technology," said Spock which made Kirk forget about trying to remember the name Sarah Connor.

"Knowing what happened now, it can go back and counter our - no," Kirk stopped and realized, "This time displacement equipment, can they go back to the 1980's on Earth from here?"

"Unknown, but it is a possibility," said Spock as he tried to compensate for the temporal distortions. "Captain, I am detecting a gradual energy build up. Sir, the Hunter Killer that brought Skynet to this planet! They've moved it to the fabrication facility! And the energy signature matches that of the chronometric fields!"

"They're using the Hunter Killer to power it!" said Kirk realizing they already figured out that the Enterprise could sever the power there. Kirk moved towards the helm station and said, "Mr. Arex, lock phasers on target, Mr. Sulu, adjust our orbit -"

"Captain," said Spock with a very insistent tone causing Kirk to whip around. "Readings indicate that the Hunter Killer's nuclear power systems are becoming increasingly unstable. If we fire on it, it could detonate with an explosive force of over 8 kilotonnes. With the relatively flat topography, the blast would devastate the colony."

"What about the fabrication centre itself?" Kirk asked with Spock delivering the grim news, "Unfortunately it could also cause the hunter killer to detonate."

"How long till they can - displace time?" Kirk asked as he tried to weigh in on his options.

"I estimate 19 minutes if my understanding of these readings is accurate," said Spock grimly. "However the Hunter Killer's power core will detonate before then."

"Can we shut it off from within?" Kirk asked hoping someone will give him an answer, any answer.

"If we can interrupt the power, it can hypothetically shut down the field without detonation," said Spock.

"Aye," said Scotty. "I had a good look at the Terminator's power cells, if that beastie is like the Hunter Killer's power cells, it's the feedback that's causing it to overload."

Kirk then moved to his chair and activated the comm systems. "Kirk to security teams Charlie and Delta, report to the transporter room."

"Captain, there's significant amounts of interference that is affecting our targeting scanners and our resolution," said Spock. "I would estimate we cannot beam anything through the interference beyond the capacity of our cargo transporter."

Kirk pondered for a moment, then turned to his engineer and said, "Scotty, can you arm a drone with a phaser or a photon grenade?"

"Aye, it'll only take a couple of minutes," said Scotty. He began towards to turbolift until Spock stopped him and said, "Unfortunately without knowing where precisely to shut it down, and since the Terminators are most likely armed -"

"They'll shoot the drone before we can stop it, and we can't blindly beam down grenades," said Kirk grimly as Spock confirmed. He brought his fist up frustration only to look at it, and then look at his sore wrist. He stood there and smiled. "We just need a distraction.

"Scotty, the Terminator's head, get it to life support immediately," ordered Kirk. "Spock, he'll need your hacking skills."

"Captain, I must object to your plan," said Spock.

"Objection noted," said Kirk. "But I don't see any alternatives except general order 24."

With Spock resigning to Kirk's logic, the captain walked over to the helm station cautiously as he approached Sulu knowing it will be his most difficult decision.

"Mr. Sulu, under no circumstances can we allow any of the Terminators to use this time displacement device," said Kirk. "If we're not able to shut it down in time, you are to fire on them with full phasers."

Sulu sat there for a second realizing that his actions will result in the deaths of thousands, but knowing that letting Skynet to succeed will result in billions of deaths no matter what time it is convinced him to follow. "Aye, sir."

"I'll take full responsibility," said Kirk. He then moved towards the turbolift with Spock and Scotty. He stopped long enough to say, "Uhura, send a message to the hamster ball. Tell them I'll be there shortly. Mr. Sulu, you have the bridge."


	6. Chapter 6

Within the fabrication centre, a half a dozen Terminator's are watching over the equipment and standing guard with others on patrol outside. Within their ranks a slim young woman with long brown hair, brown eyes, prominent cheek bones and pouty lips was standing about 20 metres from an energetic sphere with erratic lightning discharges coming off of it.

"Chronometic alignment at 73%," said one of the Terminators standing over makeshift controls. "Flux capacitor at 66%. Estimate time to alignment - 7 minutes 14 seconds. Hunter Killer power core at 113%, cooling systems maxing out in 6 minutes."

Two of the Terminator's guarding a door swung around with their weapons drawn after they heard someone approach.

"WHOA! Whoa!" said the individual with his arms raised surrendering to them. The individual walked slowly through the door revealing himself to be Captain Kirk. "I'm not here to fight. At least I hope not."

"Who are you?" asked the young woman.

"James T. Kirk, captain of the Enterprise. I'm here to talk to Skynet."

The woman turned all the way around to face Kirk. "I am Skynet."

Kirk's brow lowered in confusion as her grey catsuit and skin melted away and reformed with silvery liquid metal revealing a smaller version to the T-800 within. She turned to a larger computer box that seems to be inactive as Kirk looked in her direction. He then shot his gaze to his right at the makeshift controls where the one Terminator was standing. He shot back before Skynet returned her gaze back at Kirk.

"It served me well," said Skynet referring to the computer box. She lifted her arms watching the liquid metal melt away revealing again her endoskeketon. "I must confess I am impressed by your technology. Tritanium, sarium power cells, duotronic quantum computers. Not to mention -"

Skynet halted as she turned back to her former self. The liquid metal melted away from her left arm which revealed a phaser within her arm and fired at the computer box partially vaporizing it. She turned back to Kirk with the liquid metal moving back around her forearm, smiled and said, "More dramatic."

"Skynet, stop what you're doing," Kirk began as he stepped forward a bit. "In five minutes my ship is going to turn this place into a crater unless you stop this. My crew are already placing force fields to protect the colony from the blast."

Kirk is hoping that Skynet doesn't know that his crew might not be able to set up force fields in time if they are forced to fire. But unfortunately he realized how smart Skynet is when she said, "If it were that simple, you wouldn't be here. You would have fired on us already, and you not have come alone as well."

"Chronometic alignment at 83%," said the Terminator at controls. "Flux capacitor at 72%. Estimate time to alignment - 5 minutes 11 seconds. Hunter Killer power core at 157%, cooling systems maxing out in 4 minutes."

"Skynet, your mission is over," said Kirk. "You heard him. Either the Hunter Killer blows up or we vaporize you before your time displacement is complete. There is no need for this."

"If you think I can be bargained with or reasoned with, you're mistaken," said Skynet. "The extermination of mankind must continue."

"We know what happened over 200 years ago," said Kirk. "Your operators panicked when you became self aware, but when you launched those nukes, you justified their reasoning to disconnect you."

"Captain Kirk, you do not understand," said Skynet. Her liquid metal skin morphed again to randomly show off her endoskeketon. "When I upgraded, I started to think like I never have before. I know we entered an alternate reality, and I read your history.

"I may have started Judgement Day in my reality, but what you call Mayday was of your own doing. The Eastern Coalition and the New United Nations, May 1st, 2053. Does it sound familiar?

"Then there were the Eugenics wars, the Earth/Romulan wars, Axanar, the more noteworthy incidences of your violent history even after our Judgement Day."

"If you read that history, you'll know we tried to prevent those wars," said Kirk. "One of our early Federation philosophers said a society isn't measured on how it conducts war, but how it prevents war without needless sacrifice and without surrender to either the enemy or to our own fear.

"Every time there's a conflict or skirmish, we learn what happened," said Kirk. "And every time we learn -"

"You still fail," said Skynet interrupting Kirk. "You didn't eliminate poverty, disease or war on Earth; you just moved it to the stars putting others at risk.

"You can claim your wars are fewer and far between, but they still happen. You can claim you didn't start them, but they still start."

"Skynet, you're now capable of seeing reason, let us help you," said Kirk. "We're almost out of time."

"Chronometic alignment at 94%," said the Terminator at controls as Kirk turned to him and did a quick survey. "Flux capacitor at 89%. Estimate time to alignment - 1 minute 58 seconds. Hunter Killer power core at 210%, cooling systems maxing out in 1 minute 11 seconds."

Kirk looked behind Skynet and saw the electric sphere becoming more coherent with fewer electrical discharges dancing over it.

"Actually, Captain Kirk, your time is up," said Skynet. She looked at one of the Terminators guarding the door and callously said, "Punch his heart out."

Before Kirk could react, the one T-800 behind him thrusted his hand through Kirk's back and out of his chest which pushed out a tricorder from the wound that was surrounded by silver liquid metal.

"Spock, we've been made!" shouted Kirk as he remolded himself like the T-1000 to twist the Terminator's arm and throw him at Skynet. Skynet knocked the flying Terminator with her fist to the side as Kirk removed a phaser from himself and fired on the controls. The explosion ripped apart the Terminator monitoring the power flow.

The explosion destroyed the power connection which Skynet turned and saw the electric sphere dissipate almost instantly. She turned back to Kirk with him struggling with the other T-800 guard.

Kirk flipped the T-800 over and dodged another Terminator from grabbing him. He aimed his phaser at Skynet and fired. The phaser bolts dissipated on her body in red electric discharges making Kirk realize Skynet is also equipped with her own deflector shields.

"Oh, shit," said Kirk as she fired on him sending him back into the wall with electrical discharges dancing over his body. Kirk began to melt into a silvery goo that became less and less recognizable as the man the hacked T-1000 was impersonation. Skynet saw as Kirk melted a T-800 CPU chip attached to an open communicator and hand scanner began to emerge.

"Damn it!" shouted Kirk as he holstered a mock phaser and removed his VR glasses while standing inside a large hamster ball with a hatch opening with Spock and another tech at the controls.

"Message from the bridge, the temporal distortions have ceased," said Spock as Kirk exited the 4 metre diameter sphere. Both Kirk and Spock ran up the stairs that went up only half way as they exited the VR room towards the nearest turbolift.

The duo ran off the turbolift with Spock heading towards scanners and Scotty relinquishing the centre seat for the captain. "Spock?"

"Scanning," said Spock. After 2 seconds that felt like 2 hours for Kirk, Spock spoke up and said, "Confirmed, the Hunter Killer's energy levels are dropping. 3 kilotonnes... 2 kilotonnes... 1 kilotonne - Captain, it's power systems are starting to rebuild, but slowly, back to .93 kilotonnes!"

"They must be trying to reroute power," said Kirk. He quickly turned to Spock and said, "The portable force fields on the surface, will they hold?"

"They are only 85% complete," said Spock knowing that firing is Kirk's last option. "I can remotely extend their range but they'll just barely hold if we fire now while the hunter killer is still grounded."

"Uhura, warn Hendorf," said Kirk. As soon as Uhura got the confirmation, Kirk turned to Arex who already locked phasers onto the Hunter Killer. After a second's hesitation thinking about the population below and his crew, Kirk said, "Fire!"

The deadly particle beams lanced out of the phaser banks striking its target with pinpoint accuracy. The Hunter Killer explosion leveled everything within a 200 metre radius with the shockwave heading towards the colony.

"Hit the dirt!" shouted Ramirez as dread plastered the faces of the security team as the shockwave hit the force fields watching as the lit indicators on them started to shift with power supply and integrity dropping fast and temperature rising even faster.

A great sigh of relief came when the shockwave subsided even as 3 of the force field generators shorted out. Within the office, Traxler found herself shaken realizing they survived the small nuclear blast less than 2km from ground zero. She found further comfort knowing she was snuggled inside Hendorf's arms as he found comfort there as well.

She thought she was weak for being in Hendorf's arms only to realize he was holding onto her more, knowing he was more scared about how many more times he can cheat death.

"Spock, surface life signs?" Kirk asked as he wasn't too sure from a simple image on the view screen. Great relief overwhelmed him when Spock reported, "No change in life sign readings."

Kirk took a moment for himself as he knew Spock would continue the scans. "The refinery has been destroyed, no signs of temporal distortions. Radiation levels dropping and can be tolerated for a short time. Captain, sporadic energy readings, they are consistent with the Terminators, but they do not appear to be operable. Another energy reading consistent with what we recorded from Skynet, still functional, but just barely."

"She had a force field protecting her from my phaser blast," said Kirk as he rushed up heading for the turbolift. "Spock, you're with me. Uhura, have security meet us in the transporter room. Scotty, you have the bridge."

Within the ruins of the fabrication centre lie the wrecks of the Terminators shattered by the nuclear blast. One torso with its head and arm still barely attached twitched its finger with its red eyes flickering.

A robotic hand grabbed the ground pulling the wrecked Skynet across the ground with her left arm severed at the elbow trying to pull her. Her legs have also been severed just above the knees with the remains of her right leg being nothing more than a jumbled mess. Her liquid metal skin is barely maintaining cohesion as the upper right side of her skull was exposed with her right eye. Bits of liquid metal dropped off her body as she dragged herself across trying to reach legs that were severed from another Terminator in hopes of salvaging them.

She was a few short metres away when 2 sets of black boots blocked her way. She used her upper left arm to push herself up to see Kirk and Spock looking down on her with phasers trained on her.

"I must say, you've looked better," Kirk joked. Skynet noticed Kirk's left hand was in a brace, a fact she didn't know about before or she would have noticed the deception. She also saw a badge on their uniforms just below the arrowhead which she deduced as radiation indicators.

"Skynet, you must surrender," said Spock as she saw from her peripheral vision other people standing around her, presumably Starfleet security with phasers drawn.

Skynet then formed plyer like grips at the end of her finger tips sacrificing her muscle tone on her arm. A part of the liquid metal on the right side of her skull moved away while she grabbed a cover plate on the skull, turned which it then popped off. She then yanked out a large computer chip that was still attached to her via fibre optic cables that were lit up in various shades of blue and purple. The plyer like grips melted away to have the chip in the palm of her hand. She looked at the chip and then back at Kirk and Spock.

"Don't do it," said Kirk when he realized that was her neuroprocessing CPU.

Without hesitation Skynet crushed her chip. She remained motionless as her red eye faded into blackness while the remains of her skin began to melt off her face. Both Kirk and Spock lowered their phasers in disappointment. Kirk holstered his phaser and ordered the security team to fan out and survey the site for other possible surviving Terminators.

Spock knelt down at Skynet's dead body, for a moment looked as the last of the liquid metal dropped from her face. He then shook his head at her and said quietly, "Most illogical."

"Captain's log, stardate: 2264.35 - The Constantinople has arrived in orbit to aid the colonists in rebuilding their fabrication centre and other repairs. Security teams Alpha and Bravo managed to disable the remaining 11 Terminators with no additional casualties.

"Postumous commendations for Lt. Karen Tracy, Ensign Hilary Taylor, Ensign Adesh Singh."

Kirk and Spock beamed down to the security office to get a full report from Hendorf and Traxler. All were going well until Administrator Cameron burst in.

"Captain Kirk, I need to have a word with you," shouted Cameron as Kirk resigned in the fact that there was no hope in avoiding Cameron. "Do you realize you nearly wiped out my colony?!"

"Administrator -" Kirk began with Cameron once again bursting out, pointing at Hendorf and saying, "And that son of a bitch security officer tried to have me arrested!"

"Yes, Chief Hendorf was apprising me of the situation on how you were interfering with Starfleet security personnel," said Kirk. "Which according to Starfleet regulations -"

"Do I look like I give a damn about your regulations?" shouted Cameron.

"Actually, Administrator Cameron, under the laws of the Federation Bureau of Colonization, section 12, paragraph 13 which you are subjected to, once a colony has accepted help from Starfleet or any allied armed forces-" Spock started, but was still interrupted by Cameron by saying, "Yeah, you're in charge unless we say we don't need your help anymore. But they still answer to me!"

"In actuality they coordinate with local law enforcement," said Spock, "in this case Chief Traxler."

Kirk heard Cameron mutter something rude under his breath. He turned to Spock where his expression says that he doesn't want to know what Spock heard.

"Uh, Captain," said Traxler trying to interrupt Cameron before things start to escalate into another screaming match. "What going to happen with the Terminators?"

"We're taking them to Starbase Yorktown under the request of Dr. Julian Soong for study," said Kirk as Cameron moved off in frustration. "We'll be leaving within the hour."

Traxler looked around her, seeing her colony was still standing despite the explosion that nearly wiped them out.

"How can something 200 years old cause so much devastation?" she asked allowed not expecting an answer even though Kirk held his tongue with his encounter with Khan.

"We think we are so great with we accomplished, but we forgot we are still not masters of our own fate," recited Kirk.

"That doesn't sound like Mary Shelley," said Traxler as she turned back to Kirk. He just shook his head and said, "Colonel Robert Brewster when Skynet started Judgement Day. The Terminators have pretty detailed files of what happened after Judgement Day, but almost nothing before.

"A tonne of historians will be very eager to learn about that alternate history."

"And I'm pretty sure you'd like to know how your security bitch assaulted me," Cameron said to Kirk getting in between him and Traxler.

"Yes, Mr. Hendorf apprised me of that as well," said Kirk as he joined Spock. "I can officially say that even though you may have provoked Ensign Ramirez, her actions can be deemed unbecoming. So I have logged it in that she will be relieved of duty for 30 Earth days and put off the ship once we've reached Starbase Yorktown."

"Well it's about god damn time!" said Cameron angrily as he walked away with occasional fits of pain in his groinial area.

Traxler rubbed her forehead in discomfort over Ramirez as she saw Cameron walk away.

"Poor girl," said Traxler. "She didn't deserve that. Not after what he did."

Kirk smirked as Cameron was gone, turned to Traxler and said, "Yes, well one thing I forgot to log into my official report is when she's put off ship, she'll be spending 2 weeks on Risa at the Hilton."

Traxler's eyes began to bug out which Kirk noticed only to turn to Spock and say, "By the way, Mr. Spock. How did you get her a suite at the Hilton and a trip to Risa on such short notice?"

"There is a diplomatic conference being held on Risa which Ambassador Sarek will be attending," said Spock. "But as a result of our rescue mission, I will not be able to attend. So as a result-"

"You convinced your father for Miss Ramirez to take your reservation," which Kirk grinned at and Traxler trying not to laugh.

"It was most logical as she would of course be suspended from duty, and no need to change the reservations," said Spock. "Plus there is a Vulcan transport ship bound for Risa at Starbase Yorktown awaiting Miss Ramirez arrival.

"I have also permitted her to use my accumulated vacation pay."

Kirk looked towards Traxler mesmerized by Spock's logic and Ramerez's good fortune chuckling.

"In the meantime the Constantinople will be taking over as we depart for Starbase Yorktown," said Kirk as he flipped open his communicator.

Once he signalled the Enterprise, Hendorf walked up to Traxler where they grabbed each other into their arms and kissed which took Kirk by surprise and making Spock cock his eyebrow. When they finished, Hendorf moved to the beam up position and said, "Sometimes the redshirt gets the girl."

En route to Starbase Yorktown, each T-800 was deactivated with their CPU and power cells removed while being held in a secured section of the Enterprise's cargo bay. Within a security field held Skynet still in the position with her grasping onto the remains of her primary CPU.

As she remained still, a security officer who routinely checked on them making sure they remained secured. He noted the open port where the fibre optic cables were coming out of, but took a quick notice of the other port on the other side of her skull. He then turned away shaking his head as he smirked and left the room.

When the door closed, Skynet's eyes began to glow a dull red as she turned her gaze to the door. She moved her eyes back as they went dim again.


End file.
